By Bri Brands  

Jan Wessel, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, seeks to answer one big question in his research: what is it that makes humans human?  

As the PBS Clement T. and Sylvia H. Hanson Family Chair, Wessel’s research focuses on the cognitive neuroscience of complex human behavior and cognition. 

“In order to understand the behavior, you have to understand the brain,” he said. “The questions I am asking all pertain to behavior, but the way I’m answering them is through trying to understand the brain.”  

Cognitive control processes, Wessel’s focus area, control parts of the brain that govern processes such as sensation, perception, and movement. Those complex parts of the brain are what sets non-human animals apart from humans, Wessel said.  

“There are three things that makes us human: the complexity of our language, the complexity of our emotions, and the complexity of these cognitive control functions,” he said. 

A large part of Wessel’s research is conducted with the Cognitive Control Collaborative, a group that studies the orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with goals and contexts. 

Unlike other universities, which may only have one or two labs studying any given topic, the collaborative consists of five main laboratories all studying similar topics and asking different, but related questions about higher order complex function. 

In addition to each laboratory working closely with each other, the Cognitive Control Collaborative has a rich network of research collaboration across the university, including partners in psychiatry, neurosurgery, and the Iowa Neurosurgery Institute.  

Wessel’s unique collaboration opportunities with neurosurgeons allow him to work with them on a multitude of aspects of complex human behavior, including decision making, inhibitory control, error processing, and error correction.  

“There’s never been a specific question that’s interested me more than ‘What can we learn about these highly complex cognitive abilities and that ultimately guide our thoughts and behavior?’” Wessel said. 

The unique research group, recognized nationally and internationally, is one of Wessel’s most proud accomplishments from his time at UI. Most importantly, it offers opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to expand their horizons. 

“With five different professors and 20 different trainees with different backgrounds, there's really a lot of potential for getting a broad education on a topic,” Wessel said. “That [collaboration] allows you to synthesize things in a new way and identify new lenses with which to look upon these topics.” 

Wessel's appreciation for that kind of intellectual community didn't come fully formed—it grew from his own winding path into the field.

After finishing high school, Wessel was fascinated by human behavior and the way humans think, leading him to pursue his degree in psychology at the University of Cologne in Germany.  

Towards the end of his first year, he began having doubts about his chosen subject and considered switching gears to attend medical school. At the same time, one professor took an interest in Wessel and encouraged him not to attend medical school, noticing that he had a certain talent for experimental psychology.  

“She taught me that there’s something we can learn about human behavior through experimentation,” Wessel said. “There’s this whole scientific enterprise that allows you to learn things you’re interested in.”  

Motivated by his desire to study the human brain, Wessel began work on his PhD in psychology at Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research while subsequently completing his Master of Science in psychology at the University of Cologne.  

Upon completing his time as a postdoctoral research employee at the University of California, San Diego, Wessel began teaching and researching at the University of Iowa. Now, he focuses on making sure to encourage his own students to experiment, the same way he was initially encouraged all those years ago.  

“I always tell our students and new trainees ‘You can come here and really discover new things. There are no limits to the questions you can ask and the ways you can answer them, because we have so many experts on so many different domains," Wessel said.